Messages

[We have yet to beat anyone of substance (other than Butler) since 1999.]

Um...don't we actually have to win a game against an actual large conference program before we can predict a victory against a top-25 team?  A narrow loss to Maryland does not a competitor make. 

Yeap.  We have more moral victories than anyone.  I think we are getting way ahead of ourselves with all of these predictions and "rankings".  We have yet to beat anyone of substance (other than Butler) since 1999.

Speaking of whom, comments yeterday from the Butler message board:

The Indiana teams will be really good this year.
One team to keep in mind...Valpo. They return like their entire freakin' roster.
EDIT: Evansville should be pretty decent too.

I agree. Valpo is going to have one hell of a team. I read somewhere that they are returning 99% of their scoring. They could easily crack the top 25.
I would love to get some series against them again and shut their fans up about their win streak (mind you the 3 wins came from a bad Butler squad).

[/b]

Nice of them to remember!  Actually it is a four game win streak. The streak began against a "bad" Butler team in the 2010-2011 season.  That "bad" team played in the NCAA Title game.  The streak continued with three more wins in the 2011-2012 season when a "bad" Butler team went 22-15 and won two games in the CBI post-season tournament.  Then they quit playing us.   

Not to discredit anything that we have done, but that 2011-2012 team was not a good Butler team at all. The early departures of Hayward and Mack to the NBA left them with so little offense. I remember watching their games, all you had to do was put your defense in the paint as no one could shoot on their team. They went 22-15 because they weren't a bad team mid-major team, but they weren't anything like their other teams. Sometimes I read these posts and Paul's tweets and think we thump our chest a little too much about capitalizing on their worst year in a long time (yes even worse than 2013-2014 BE team they had).

And their other teams that were "anything like their other teams"??  They had Hayward, Howard and Mack plus Ronald Nored.  They probably will never have a team with that much talent.

I'm not saying that the 2009-2010 is the status quo for Butler's teams because it obviously isn't. You're right, they might not ever have a team that talented again. All I'm saying is that the 2011-2012 team was not the normal quality team that we see from Butler. We capitalized on it, as did other teams.

[potentially be a national championship contender]

It's amazing to see how far this team has come over the past few seasons. From making it back to the tournament for the first time in nearly a decade to what can potentially be a national championship contender. 

This team can be by far the best team in school history. Am I saying we are a national championship team? Not by any means. If we do play to our potential we can easily be in the discussion of the best of the best. This is all just preseason wishful thinking but if everything goes as I hope this could easily be a Top 15 team.

You seem to be contradicting yourself. I think these team can compete with most teams in the top 25, but to me there is still a lot more to prove. Playing a close game to high majors isn't enough for me to say we will be a top 15 team. Though I'm hopeful 

[We have yet to beat anyone of substance (other than Butler) since 1999.]

Um...don't we actually have to win a game against an actual large conference program before we can predict a victory against a top-25 team?  A narrow loss to Maryland does not a competitor make. 

Yeap.  We have more moral victories than anyone.  I think we are getting way ahead of ourselves with all of these predictions and "rankings".  We have yet to beat anyone of substance (other than Butler) since 1999.

Speaking of whom, comments yeterday from the Butler message board:

The Indiana teams will be really good this year.
One team to keep in mind...Valpo. They return like their entire freakin' roster.
EDIT: Evansville should be pretty decent too.

I agree. Valpo is going to have one hell of a team. I read somewhere that they are returning 99% of their scoring. They could easily crack the top 25.
I would love to get some series against them again and shut their fans up about their win streak (mind you the 3 wins came from a bad Butler squad).

[/b]

Nice of them to remember!  Actually it is a four game win streak. The streak began against a "bad" Butler team in the 2010-2011 season.  That "bad" team played in the NCAA Title game.  The streak continued with three more wins in the 2011-2012 season when a "bad" Butler team went 22-15 and won two games in the CBI post-season tournament.  Then they quit playing us.   

Not to discredit anything that we have done, but that 2011-2012 team was not a good Butler team at all. The early departures of Hayward and Mack to the NBA left them with so little offense. I remember watching their games, all you had to do was put your defense in the paint as no one could shoot on their team. They went 22-15 because they weren't a bad team mid-major team, but they weren't anything like their other teams. Sometimes I read these posts and Paul's tweets and think we thump our chest a little too much about capitalizing on their worst year in a long time (yes even worse than 2013-2014 BE team they had).

I wonder how they rank these these schools. Iowa State ranked below Iowa? Please.

I take these rankings with a grain of salt. Schools have their strong majors and colleges and their weak ones. Kind of hard to compare most schools imo.

http://www.indystar.com/videos/sports/college/butler/2015/04/01/70767314/

A great video for those that care.

Griffith is playing for the Class 3A State Title game this weekend. A lot of people aren't happy about it.


I'm not sure if my facts are straight or not, but my understanding is that they were suspended for the entire year (ended up forfeiting 7 games) but appealed to the Lake County Court. The court overruled the IHSAA suspension right before post season play.


I went to high school at Griffith, so I'm all for it 

You can tell that if Vashil touched the ball last, that it would have gone a different direction.  It was off Maryland, as I am told many commentators mentioned. 

They showed an angle at the very end of the review and it looked as if MD hit the ball, but the tips of Vashil's fingers were still on the ball. They showed it and the end and only once, but I thought it was a clear angle.

Does the NCAA make apologies for such a blatantly missed call on a last second shot, or do they just ignore it like it didn't happen?  Also, that SI article mentions an interesting point about Dorsey being a Big 10 referee for several games.  He was the ref standing just a few feet away from Ram's foul on Keith, and swallowed his whistle...

I'm okay with ref's not calling every bit of body contact at the end, but you can't foul a shooter like that. In real time I didn't think it was a foul (clearly it was). There were missed calls on both ends, but we should have been on the line at the end. TBH, I doubt he hits all three, but you never know.

The call on Skara was questionable, but its ALWAYS called. The non-call on Keith is not. It was a foul.

In your photo the Skara foul looks questionable.  (The Baltimore beat writer called him Peters too, on twitter.)

In the video replay it seemed pretty clear that Dodd got a lot of hand.

I disagree. I saw all ball. I thought that point of the game was huge for us.

Excited for the Butler ND game today. I heard that Roosevelt Jones sprained his knee against Texas but will play. Butler is going to need his defense at 100% if they are going to stand a chance against ND's offense. I can see it as a blow out win in favor of ND or a close game in favor of Butler.

The skara foul/block was not at the ball it was the body. ...

I'd have to see it again, but it didn't look like there was that much body contact when they were showing the replays and even live.

Also, how about MD's starting center Dodd who picked up his third and 4th foul on the clear block and then subsequent tech foul when Peters tried to dunk on him early in the 2nd half.  Peters was clearly not fouled, then fell to the feet of Dodd who stared down at him when he just laying there at his feet.

First of all, that was Skara (maybe "they all look alike" to you). Second of all, it wasn't a block if he got hands rather than ball.

That block on Skara was definitely a block. He had all ball and minimal body contact. It was a bad call by the ref. The tech wasn't though.

Didn't realize how close these 13-4 games have been till now.


UNC-Harvard : 67-65
Louisville-UCI : 57-55
UMD-Valpo : 65-62


Still feeling crappy about this one. So close, but we fall to another high major. At least this isn't like 2012-2013 where we lost so many players.

[EXCEPT]

We have all the pieces in place to be a really great team EXCEPT a post player who is a scoring threat. That is what we were missing tonight.  12 of our 20 made shots came from behind the 3 point line.  That is not a recipe for sustained success.  We need somebody who is a true post player and is a threat to score every time he gets a touch in the post.

I completely agree. We had an excellent game behind the arc today that could have taken down just about anyone, but we all know how the saying goes...

If we were graduating 3-4 starters, maybe Bryce leaves, but I still doubt it. I don't see a reason for him to walk away as we should have an even better team next year. I could see Indiana maybe making a run at him though as Crean's seat just got a lot hotter.

We need to strengthen our OOC schedule and pick up some quality wins and we could easily be a 10-8 seed. Although being a 13 or 14 seed isn't looking too bad anymore. Can't choke on high majors anymore in the OOC.

It's crazy how close these 12-5, 13-4, and 14-3 games have been.

I didn't like the call at first, but after seeing the replays I thought it was the right call. UCLA shouldn't have been in the tournament in the first place and they are probably going to end up in the Sweet 16

I really do not understand why people from Valpo dislike Butler. If Valpo had the same success as Butler, they would have done exactly the same thing (moved up conferences the opportunity presented itself). I have plenty of family that are Butler alumns and they always support Valpo.

I agree, I don't get why this board continues to bash Butler so much. I grew up in the region and went to Valpo, but I too know many Butler alum and they always cheer on Valpo. I have only been on the Butler boards once or twice (when Brandon Miller took a medical leave), and they sure do have some complete idiots, but they make up a small percentage of the entire fan base (like most boards do). I don't post much, but I read a lot and it seems like 1 out of every 3 threads has Butler mentioned in it somehow. Just seems a little ridiculous that we revel in their losses and have multiple threads or posts when they lose or win a big game...

Just got my tickets to the game today! I really think this team can win out and even win a game in the big dance!

Is this just like how we weren't on the same level in the current 4 game win streak we have against them?  Give me a break, we don't fear Buck Futler like we do other schools that have basketball tradition.  We panic against BCS teams, we don't panic against Buck Futler...

I question this. Not one of our current players have ever played against Butler, correct? Sometimes too many of our own feelings about certain opponents are projected on the team when things like this are discussed. I'm all for beating Butler any day and every day. But you wouldn't think playing Missouri would have had the effect that it did either.

Completely agree with valpotx on this one, we don't fear them (I don't care if not one of these players was on the team then) and they know very well that we have beaten some of their best teams in the very recent past.  Makes the world of difference. Who cares whether they almost beat the #6 team in the rankings.  We beat them the year they played for the national championship.

I agree and disagree.

We beat Butler in 2010-11 (I was at that game and it was a phenomenal game to be at!) and they responded (after losing at Youngstown) by going on their second historical run. Before that, I can't remember the last time we beat them. 2011-2012 was one of their worst seasons (yes, even worse then the season they had last year), but we clearly stomped them. The only good team we beat was 10-11.

Nonetheless, I think that Butler would be a perfect match for us in the tourney and would be the best 5 and lower seed for us to play. Recent success goes a long ways, even if the players haven't played them. We match up against them well.